Adult Literacy Tutor, Waitakere Adult Literacy Incorporated

"A champion of adult literacy".

 A key component of Dara’s teaching philosophy is to ‘enable others to develop their skills to improve aspects of their lives that will facilitate more opportunities and choices’. Nothing escapes Dara’s collection of teaching tools. Any object, image or experience, even junk mail, is used to improve her students’ literacy. ‘No one is illiterate’, says Dara. She focuses on the goals that are important to the learner to help them understand their own literacy.

Her manager comments that as a National Trainer for Literacy Aotearoa, Dara’s ability to establish rapport with trainees and her flexibility in training ensures that her trainees are ‘extremely well prepared to become effective adult literacy tutors’.

Dara assists learners to determine how they learn best by having them reflect on their past learning experiences. This helps her to structure and deliver a flexible and varied teaching programme that meets the needs of each learner. One student said, 'Dara works with us on our own individual level, ensuring all needs are met and we are working at our own ability to increase our education.'